«Violin» characteristics of Édouard Lalo’s «Symphonie Espagnole»

Abstract

Statement of the problem. An arsenal of technical performance means can act as an indicator of the novelty of a work at a certain historical stage, opening the way to understanding both evolutionary processes in the field of performance, in particular violin, and the patterns of development of certain genres. The purpose of the article is to highlight the issue of “violin” and “non-violin” specifics on the example of É. Lalo’s «Symphonie Espagnole» (Violin Concerto No. 2, op. 21), which belongs to a number of violin concertos of the last third of the 19th century marked by the influence of a new wave of virtuosity. The question of “non-violinism” became relevant in the late 70s of the 19th century, when the concert repertoire was replenished with works that went beyond the performance ideal as a result of the composers’ rethinking of the principles of musical dramaturgy and, accordingly, the functions of the soloist and the orchestra. Subordinating technical tasks to the dramaturgy of the work, rather than showing the virtuoso capabilities of the instrument and the soloist, raises a number of issues related to the objective perception of the new sound artistic model. Thus, in the concert works for the violin of the last third of the 19th century, two approaches are evident – traditional and innovative. É. Lalo’s concert works, despite the presence of his name in scientific research, remain understudied. In particular, the approach to the analysis of the «Symphonie Espagnole» from the viewpoint of “violin” and “non-violin” characteristics has not been used before. Results and conclusions. The analysis of É. Lalo’s work according to several parameters proposed by us (the balance of solo and orchestral parts; the implementation of tessitura and dynamic tasks; the choice of strokes; techniques of playing – passage, chordal technique; fingering) with the purpose of identifying the specific “violin” nature in the musical text allowed us to come to the conclusion that the spread of the latest trends did not turn É. Lalo away from using purely violin techniques and artistically expressive means that maximized performance comfort. The evolution of the concert genre in the last third of the 19th century contributed to the emergence of a new format of the relationship between the soloist and the author, when the dramatic idea, the artistic content of the work became a priority in the composing process, and the transformation of the performance approach towards the subordination of the soloist to certain semantic dominants expanded the limits of performance possibilities. However, musicians did not reject the traditional approach; they preserved the continuity of performance traditions, which is proved by the works of É. Lalo, A. Dvořak, C. Saint-Saëns.